Former rep sentenced on harboring aliens charge

Saturday, August 9, 2008 1:46 PM CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa - A former union representative convicted of harboring
illegal immigrants working at a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in
Marshalltown has been sentenced to a year and one day in prison.

Braulio Pereyra-Gabino, 59, of Marshalltown, was also ordered to pay a
$2,000 fine and $100 to the Crime Victim Fund. He was sentenced on Friday.

In May, Pereyra-Gabino was convicted by a federal jury of harboring
illegal aliens. He had faced up to five years in prison and a $250,000
fine on that charge. He was aquitted of other charges including false
representation of a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft.

According to court records, Pereyra-Gabino was working as vice president
of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 1149
when he was arrested by federal immigration officials in July 2007. A
union official said Friday that Pereyra-Gabino no longer served as a
union representative.

Prosecutors contended during the trial that Pereyra-Gabino told
undocumented workers how to escape detection and protect their fake
identities used to get jobs at the Marshalltown plant.

Federal officials have said the charges resulted, in part, because of
union orientation speeches that Pereyra-Gabino gave to all new Swift
employees of Hispanic descent. They said he told illegal workers to do
things such as hide their identification in their boots and not tell
anyone else which workers did or did not have legal authorization to
work in the U.S.

During his trial, a prosecution witness testified that Pereyra-Gabino
knew she was an illegal immigrant but told her how to obtain documents
to work at the Swift plant. She taped the conversation with him as she
cooperated with the federal investigation.

Rigg argued during the trial that Pereyra-Gabino may have said things
during those orientation speeches that the jury may not like, but that
those words were protected by his right to free speech and that no crime
occurred.

Pereyra-Gabino was also accused of filling out a job application at
Swift in December 2005 for his nephew, and providing the company with a
Social Security number issued to another man, Mohammed Carrasquillo.
Prosecutors called Carrasquillo, who testified that he never filed an
application at Swift or worked there.

A handwriting expert testified that the application was likely filled
out by Pereyra-Gabino.

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2008/08/09/ap-state-ia/d92etg0o1.txt



--
"Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English, they'll
learn English; you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish."

Barack Hussein Obama
[ Auf dieses Posting antworten ]